[TxMt] cursor page up

[Ryan Schmidt]

Sorry, I missed that you were talking about Option-Page Up/Down. I see 
that TextEdit uses Option-Page Up/Down the same as TextMate so you're 
in good company there.

But regarding some other TM choices, I must say that I've always been 
confused by applications that stray from the accepted user interface 
standards. Standards are what make a system easy to use. Users who have 
learned one application should be able to apply that knowledge to new 
applications they use. If your application does not follow conventions, 
users who are used to the established standards will find your 
application confusing.

Surely, if you find the default behavior to be wrong, then you believe 
that to be the case in every application you use. If you want page-up 
to work like it does on Windows, where it moves the insertion point, or 
if you'd rather that it make you a cup of tea, then you probably want 
that behavior in Mail.app and TextEdit and AppleWorks too, and not just 
in TextMate. Wouldn't the correct solution then be to write (the OS 
X-equivalent of) a system extension to modify the default behavior? 
That way this extension can be used by others sharing your view, and 
these users are then also able to enjoy a consistent user experience 
across all applications.

If you don't like the QWERTY keyboard, you don't hardcode a different 
keymap into your application. You code to the OS standards, then use 
System Preferences to select a different keyboard layout. If you don't 
like the Aqua user interface elements, you shouldn't create custom 
controls just for your application. You should use the custom controls, 
and then use ShapeShifter to select a different system-wide theme.

I'm very happy that OS X brings many new developers and users to the 
platform and welcome their contributions. But coming to the Mac 
platform means doing it the Mac way. I've used Mac OS X since before it 
was released, and I still haven't found a native mail client I can 
stand. Thunderbird, for example, is absolutely remarkable. I would be 
hard pressed to find another application that disregards more Mac HI 
guidelines. And that's my impression after trying to use it for only 
about half an hour. That kind of stuff won't fly. I have enough trouble 
trying to get Apple to make their OS X apps conform to established 
interface conventions (Mail.app, I'm lookin' at you).


On 4. Dez 2004, at 20:38, Allan Odgaard wrote:

> On Dec 4, 2004, at 19:20, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>
>> Apple HI behavior regarding this point is very deliberate [...] 
>> Pressing page-up scrolls up one window-full without moving the 
>> insertion point. Similarly for page-down.
>
> Sorry, I was actually talking about option-page up/down.
>
> This does move the insertion point, and it was the behavior for this I 
> didn't see defined.
>
>> Home scrolls to the very top, without moving the insertion point. 
>> Similarly for End. (In 1.0.2b8 Home and End behave wrong.)
>
> Yes, this is because I change it in the default key bindings, as I 
> previosuly did with page up/down also.
>
> I did this because _every_ Mac user I (personally) know thinks the 
> default (with scrolling) is not only useless, but also frustrating.
>
> But all Mac users I know (incl. myself) didn't start using Mac before 
> OS X, and apparently many existing Mac users did like the “scroll 
> only”, so I removed the default page up/down key bindings. But since I 
> never heard anything for home/end, I kept these.
>
> I have considered removing them though (I have my own key bindings 
> anyway ;) ).